Friday, August 31, 2012

**** Where do you want the country to move? Should we move forward with President Obama, or back to the failed policies of the past with Romney? Moving forward with President Obama sounds better to me! We need a more inclusive society, not a Romney society where only rich, white men have power (and dogs are put on the roof).

• • •> There is still plenty of fall out from the charges by Josh Mandel, Ohio's absent Treasurer and current Republican candidate. Josh Mandel said that Sen. Sherrod Brown's vote was, according to Mandel, "un-American."

...Thursday, local veterans, including two retired Army Generals, denounced
Mandel’s choice of words. Ret. Major General Dennis Laich said, "having
spent 35 years in the military, I have a sense of what un-American
looks like in terms of words and deeds and I can tell you that the vote
that Senator Brown took, in no way, represents an un-American act."

...Retired Army Brigadier General Sam Kindred took offense at Mandel’s
suggestion that Senator Brown’s vote was somehow “un-American.” “It
belittles those Americans who put their lives on the line or are putting
their lives on the line every day fighting the real un-Americans – It
denigrates their service.”

Major General Laich said he and other veterans applaud Mandel for his
service in the Marine Corps. But Laich says Senator Brown’s experience
with military issues at a national strategic level far outweighs
Mandel’s experience as a Marine at the tactical level....

Once again, Ohio voters are witnesses to the depth of Josh Mandel's knowledge of policy, issues, and ethics. He has none. Josh Mandel is a puppet for the far right. The people that want to privatize Social Security, give vouchers to your grandparents for Medicare, end Medicaid for the poor, close public schools, and provide more tax cuts for millionaires, are pulling the strings for the awkward, candidate, GOPer Josh Mandel.

* Mitt Romney's speech doesn't mention things that are important to Americans: Social Security, Medicare, Iraq, ending the war in Afghanistan, immigration, etc.http://tinyurl.com/9zcrzkh

In newly released footage, Mitt Romney tells donors the story of
visiting China with his Bain Capital friends and seeing a crowded
factory with fences, barbed wire, and guard towers -- but rather than
being outraged, he holds this up as a shining example of how our economy
should work.

As you know, I'm losing my job to China. So I sat down with my
coworkers at Sensata and we taped this response to Mitt Romney's video:

This video was a response to a released video of Mitt Romney talking about the working conditions in China. You can see the video at Crooks and Liars.

>>> Is Republican Rep. Steve Stivers afraid to debate Democrat Pat Lang? Read the article at Athensnews and you decide. Sounds to me that Steve Stivers is disrespecting Pat Lang and his supporters.

...Ryan then noted that Obama, while campaigning for president, promised
that a GM plant in Wisconsin would not shut down. "That plant didn’t
last another year. It is locked up and empty to this day. And that’s how
it is in so many towns today, where the recovery that was promised is
nowhere in sight," Ryan said.

Except Obama didn't promise that. And the plant closed in December 2008 -- while George W. Bush was president.

It was just one of several striking and demonstrably misleading
elements of Ryan's much-anticipated acceptance speech. And it comes just
days after Romney pollster Neil Newhouse warned, defending the
campaign's demonstrably false ads claiming Obama removed work
requirements from welfare, "We're not going to let our campaign be
dictated by fact-checkers."

Obviously, Paul Ryan would rather tell lies than provide facts. With their pollster admitting they'll be lying, why would anyone believe anything that comes from Romney=Ryan, and the campaign? The Romney-Ryan team is more interested in lies, demoralizing and disrespecting women, and getting tax cuts for millionaires, billionaires, and their contributors. Do you recall what Paul Ryan said about rape?

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

*** When I saw the video of Mitt Romney and Josh Mandel speaking in front of coal miners, I noticed that the coal miners did not appear to be happy. They all looked mad, and without any interest in the speakers. Now the truth comes out----they were props.

When GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney visited an Ohio coal mine
this month to promote jobs in the coal industry, workers who appeared
with him at the rally lost pay because their mine was shut down.

The
Pepper Pike company that owns the Century Mine told workers that
attending the Aug. 14 Romney event would be both mandatory and unpaid, a
top company official said Monday morning in a West Virginia radio interview.

A group of employees who feared they'd be fired if they didn't attend
the campaign rally in Beallsville, Ohio, complained about it to WWVA
radio station talk show host David Blomquist. Blomquist discussed their
beefs on the air Monday with Murray Energy Chief Financial Officer Rob
Moore.....

It was MANDATORY! This was the event where right wing puppet, Josh Mandel, tried out his southern accent and made an issue of contributors from New York and Hollywood (even though he himself has gotten mega bucks from California and New York, and has visited both coasts for fundraisers numerous times). OpenSecrets noted that Mandel has received over $400,000 in campaign contribution from New York City. Mandel's supporters in California, have given him over $300,000 in contributions (see OpenSecrets).

Josh Mandel called Sherrod Brown "un-American" for voting for the auto loan program. President Obama's auto bailout saved the American auto companies, the jobs they create for hundreds of thousands of Americans in car factories and in part supplier manufacturing plants. As Andy Kroll at Mother Jones points out, Paul Ryan also voted for the same car bill.

....In a joint interview with Brown on Sunday, however, Mandel broke his silence in a big way. He called
Brown "un-American" for voting in favor of the auto industry bailout,
claiming that non-union retirees at Delphi, a GM parts supplier, got screwed out of of their pensions because of the government bailouts. (As PolitiFact notes, that's not quite true.)

There's a big problem with branding a yes vote on the auto bailout
"un-American": The presumptive vice-presidential nominee for Mandel's
own party, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.), voted yes for that same bailout. Is
Ryan un-American, too?

....Ryan was one of 32 House Republicans
to vote for the auto bailout on December 10, 2008, vastly outnumbered
by the 150 House GOPers who voted against it. Then-Sen. George Voinovich
(R-Ohio), in Congress' upper chamber, also voted in support of the auto
bailout; he was joined by seven other Senate Republicans. Is Voinovich also un-American, according to Mandel?...

Those of us that live in Ohio are too familiar with Josh Mandel's smear campaign tactics. Josh Mandel is being manipulated by his right wing sponsors. He doesn't know much about policy, and as Plunderbund put it, is part of the "Palinization" of the GOP.

The Dispatch was able to witness the first head to head rhetorical
matchup between Brown and Mandel, and if their experience is a precursor
to debates we might see in the Senate race I’d say Sherrod Brown is in
pretty good shape. Despite giving the article a completely false
headline that seems to indicate both Mandel and Brown came unhinged [
"Mandel, Brown take off glove"], the article does a good job of
highlighting the difference between the sitting senior Senator from Ohio
and the wingnut boy wonder Treasurer. There was no point in the actual
article where you could come close to claiming that Brown took off any
gloves. He was, in fact, quite measured and factual – refusing to even
acknowledge Josh Mandel’s sleazy “un-American” attack.

Mandel not only takes his gloves AND his boots off, he starts
flailing around like that kid in the sandlot who knows he’s going to
lose and decides to start swinging madly in the hopes of landing a good
punch....

Monday, August 27, 2012

In Ohio, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown continues to be supported by contributions from people in our state. Open Secrets has the following statistics about campaign contributions for the Senate race: OUT OF STATE

Sherrod Brown (D) 38%

Josh Mandel (R) 53%

Why are so many people and groups outside of Ohio supporting Republican Josh Mandel? What has he promised them to get their money?

- - - - - -

Have you read the interview that the Dispatch did with Sen. Sherrod Brown, and Josh Mandel, Ohio's absent Treasurer? Mandel's responses make him sound uninformed, and robotic, with an extreme overuse of Republican buzz words. Mandel seems completely clueless.

Responding to Democratic charges that he sought to narrow the definition of rape when he co-sponsored a House measure last year
that used the term “forcible rape,” presumptive GOP vice-presidential
nominee Paul Ryan said Monday that the phrase was “stock language” and
that he agreed with its eventual removal from the bill....

How many ways can Paul Ryan and the Republicans outlaw federal funds being spent on abortions when it was already passed in 1976? The Republicans are supreme time wasters while they continue to get their paychecks.

Paul Ryan thinks he has foreign policy experience. Really. Crooks and Liars has Paul Ryan's response to a question about his experience:

Speaking to Fox News’ Carl Cameron Saturday morning, Republican VP
nominee Paul Ryan made the case for why he believes his foreign policy
credentials are stronger than President Obama’s, emphasizing that he has
been a voting member of Congress longer than the president. Ryan cited
his votes in favor of the Iraq War as evidence that he has had more
foreign policy experience than Obama.....

....“I voted to send people to war,” he added.

As a congressman, Ryan voted for the 2002 Iraq Resolution which
authorized President George W. Bush to use military force in Iraq. He
also voted in favor of the Iraq War troop “surge” in 2007....

Sending young men and women to war is his foreign policy experience???? Did he also include the fact that he voted against funding at the beginning of those wars?

Saturday, August 25, 2012

** In case you missed Plunderbund's take on it, Sen. Sherrod Brown and Josh Mandel met at an interview at the Dispatch. After reading the article, a sane person would conclude that Sen. Sherrod Brown was the grown up candidate with facts on his side. However, Josh Mandel sounded a lot like a kid with over memorized talking points as his answers for everything.

....When Mandel was asked by
The Dispatch what he would have done differently at the time the federal loans were
offered to the auto companies, as well as what health-care alternative he would offer to “
Obamacare,” Mandel offered a five-minute response about the free-enterprise system, government
regulations and Greece before steering to an environmental regulation he has criticized Brown for
supporting.

When he was asked again to answer the initial question, Mandel offered general remarks on
regulations, energy production and the U.S. tax code. Twelve minutes after Mandel was asked what he
would have done differently during the time of the bailout — and it had been suggested to him that
he either did not have or was not offering an alternative — Mandel said: “You can write, ‘Josh’s
plan would’ve been, and Josh’s plan continues to be, to reform regulations and create a better
economic environment for auto manufacturing and manufacturing in general.’ ”

Josh Mandel's response sounded a little disjointed and goofy. Mandel is like a kid that hasn't read a book but tries to convince the teacher he knows what is in the book. No matter what he says, Josh Mandel sounds like a babbling, right wing puppet. Words come out of his mouth, but he doesn't even know what they mean. Mandel's ego has been pumped up by his right wing handlers. He has no plans and the only things he does know are the vocabulary words given to him by the likes of Jim DeMint, Karl Rove, Dick Armey, Paul Ryan, and the Americans for (their own) Prosperity.

-----------

* If you are thinking about voting for a Republican,
remember that they are targeting Social Security, and Medicare. Through
a pledge, Cut, Cap, and Balance, signed by Republican Senators (including Rob Portman, etc. see LINK), House Members
(including Paul Ryan, Todd Akin, Jeff Flake, Darrell Issa, Thad
McCotter, Patrick McHenry, Ben Quayle, Jim Rinacci, Steve Stivers, Joe
Walsh, Allen West, Joe Wilson, etc. see Link), candidates for the Senate and the House (including George Allen, Josh Mandel, Heather Wilson, etc., see LINK), and Mitt Romney (and the rest of the Republican presidential candidates, see LINK), they've vowed to make cuts no matter how many people get hurt.

...The “Cut, Cap, and Balance Act” that House Republican leaders are
circulating achieves these results through a multi-faceted attack on the
federal government. It would require that total federal spending
shrink to about 20 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) starting
in 2015 (by writing the Ryan budget’s year-by-year expenditure levels as
a share of GDP into law, as caps to be enforced through automatic
across-the-board budget cuts if the caps otherwise wouldn’t be met).
The Ryan budget would slash non-security discretionary programs by 33
percent by 2021 (relative to CBO’s January baseline), cut Medicaid by
$1.4 trillion over the decade, and cut an array of other programs from
Medicare to Pell Grants, while shielding the defense budget and further
cutting taxes for the wealthiest Americans.

...“Cut, Cap, and Balance,” by contrast, specifically subjects all such
programs to across-the-board cuts if its spending caps would be
exceeded....

...an impoverished elderly widow living on Supplemental Security Income —
which provides benefits that lift people to just 75 percent of the
poverty line — could have her assistance cut back under the measure’s
across-the-board budget cuts even as millionaire hedge-fund managers
retained their lucrative carried-interest tax breaks.

* Mitt Romney's said today that no one has ever asked for his birth certificate. Of course, Mitt Romney is a wealthy white man, from a wealthy white family. He went to expensive private schools. Romney has lived a privileged life and he has managed to always get what he wanted.

Was Romney's comment his way to discredit and disrespect President Obama? Shame on Mitt Romney. This is just another reason to vote against Romney and Ryan. President Obama has already provided proof of his birth, but the birthers continue to disrespect Obama.

Friday, August 24, 2012

Writes Like She Talks
had a post in 2009 in which Republican Josh Mandel marched in an
anti-abortion protest in Cleveland. The story was carried in the Plain Dealer
which had Josh Mandel involved in the march to protest a bill to
promote a woman's right to choose. Mandel marched because he was
against it. The Plain Dealer article reminds the reader that Sen. Sherrod Brown "....supports a woman's right to choose..."

(I wonder if someone has any pictures or videos of Mandel in that march..... Hmmmm.) Josh Mandel is part of the male-dominated right wing, anti-women, Republican Party. Women Are Watching reminds us:

Mandel supported the dangerous Blunt amendment, which would allow any
business or corporation to deny any essential health care service they
object to, including coverage for birth control. Mandel maintained that
it was “not an issue about birth control.” [Cleveland Plain Dealer,
3/2/12]

.....Mandel wants to defund Planned Parenthood
and jeopardize health care for millions of women. Given the chance, he
would end federal funding for lifesaving cancer screenings, birth
control, and affordable, quality health care at the drop of a hat.
Joining the ranks of Dennis Rehberg, Steve King, and Allen West, Mandel
is just another politician who thinks he knows better than women and
their doctors. He opposes abortion with no exceptions, even in cases of
rape and incest OR to save the life of the woman. Unlike Senator Sherrod Brown, Mandel doesn’t believe women should make their own health care decisions....

.....In the Ohio Senate race the choice is clear: do you want someone who is
willing to stand up and protect access to affordable quality care or
someone who is so out of touch, he fails to realize the importance of
women's health?

Josh Mandel was a vocal supporter of SB 5, the Republican bill that would have jeopardized the futures of teachers, fire fighters, police officers, nurses, and state workers.

Thursday, August 23, 2012

* Republican Josh Mandel, Ohio's absent Treasurer, has political commercials on TV only because out of state, right wing, pro-wealthy, anti-middle class special interest groups continue to pour money into his campaign. However, Josh Mandel has spent so little time in his office as Treasurer that he knows so little about what jobs have been saved in the state and how much money is in the state employees retirement funds (police, fire, teachers, state employees, highway patrol, etc.). Here are some example of the robotic, uninformed responses from Mandel:

Josh Mandel doesn't care that President Obama's plan to save the American automakers saved hundreds of thousands of jobs in Ohio and millions of jobs across the country.

Josh Mandel doesn't even know how much money is in the state retirement funds! The OhioCapitalBlog has the video:

It might be that Mandel thinks he is protecting only $100 billion of the retirement funds. What about the other $65 billion? That isn't chump change.

Does Josh Mandel refuse to answer because he hasn't been told what to say or because he cannot come up with an answer that is appropriate and in line with his right wing supporters? If not for the right wing PACS which have poured over $15 million into Ohio, Mandel would have no political ads. What will he owe these groups after the election? What promises has he made to them on tax cuts for the rich, ending health screenings for cancer, abortion, ending Pell grants, privatizing education, having a war with Iran, ending Social Security and Medicare? Do you think they'd give him money for nothing? They expect him to vote the way they dictate.

As a woman, I'm concerned about Josh Mandel and other Republicans that want to restrict women and their reproductive choices. How dare Mandel and the rest of the Republicans question a woman's personal issues about birth control and abortion?!!! Would they like it if we asked every male Republican how often they use Viagra and other similar drugs? Mandel and the rest of the GOP might say that question was an invasion of their privacy, but they don't seem to get that they are invading a woman's private decisions.

It is not his right or duty to tell a woman what she can and cannot do. Todd Akin, Josh Mandel, Paul Ryan, Eric Cantor, and the rest of the Republicans have voted to restrict women's reproductive choices. It is none of their business. Paul Ryan even wanted to restrict a woman's access to birth control pills!!!!!!

The Republicans say they want to "take the country back" but they always leave off the rest of the statement.

The Republican motto should be----

"We want to take out country back to the 1950's ---

no civil rights, no birth control, no rights for women,

no Medicare, no voting rights,

no equal education."

What rights and privileges do the Republicans want you to surrender? If you are a woman or a member of the middle class, voting for a Republican is like shooting yourself in the foot. They don't care about you.

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

**** President Obama saved $716 billion
by closing the donut hole, cutting overcharges, and cutting costs. If
the Affordable Care Act is repealed, the Romney-Ryan administration
would open up the donut hole and seniors would pay more. If Romney and Ryan are able to win and "reform" Medicare, the program would be gone.

Mitt Romney’s promise to restore $716 billion that he says President Obama “robbed” from Medicare
has some health care experts puzzled, and not just because his running
mate, Representative Paul D. Ryan, included the same savings in his
House budgets.

The 2010 health care law
cut Medicare reimbursements to hospitals and insurers, not benefits for
older Americans, by that amount over the coming decade. But repealing
the savings, policy analysts say, would hasten the insolvency of
Medicare by eight years — to 2016, the final year of the next
presidential term, from 2024....

...What Mr. Romney proposes to restore to Medicare, however, is not money
but additional costs, for higher payments to hospitals, insurers and
other care providers. Lobbying groups representing some care providers
accepted those reductions during the health care debate, and in exchange
they got the law’s mandate for nearly all individuals to have
insurance, which meant that providers and insurers would have millions
of new paying patients and policyholders.....

Allowing
Romney and Ryan to get their hands on Medicare would spell disaster for
seniors.

••••• Did you know that Paul Ryan voted for the "let women die" bill???CBS Pittsburgh:

.....there is something else Paul Ryan is gaining notoriety for, his
sponsorship of federal legislation to declare that human life begins at
fertilization. “Personhood”, as it is called by its proponents, has
failed on every state ballot because of its extreme nature.

“Personhood” would outlaw all abortions, even in the cases of rape,
incest and threats to a woman’s health. “Personhood” also criminalizes
many forms of birth control, including the pill (which is the most
popular form of birth control). It also threatens couples going through
in vitro fertilization with criminal charges should something happen to
the resulting embryos – or as Ryan would say, the resulting people.....

....Ryan voted for the “let women die” bill which would allow hospitals to
refuse to provide a woman emergency, lifesaving abortion care, even if
she could die without it.....

Paul Ryan's views about women and our rights are terrible. Does Paul Ryan think women are second class citizens?

>>>> Republican candidate Josh Mandel is so unpopular in Ohio that he is being propped up by outside money from far right, anti-middle class, pro-wealth PACs. Josh Mandel is like a puppet figure for the Republicans that will do anything that they ask him.

Josh Mandel, Ohio's absent Treasurer, has refused to release information about which companies got contracts with his office. There have been 3 total requests for this information.

...The Republican candidate for Ohio's Senate seat is being pressed to
release contracts granted by his state office to banks, money managers
and investment brokers...

Josh Mandel says he is for transparency, but apparently Mandel is as transparent as a concrete wall.

> I wonder how much Josh Mandel thinks he owes the family of the David L. Brennan, owner of White Hat Management and other companies. According to the Ohio Secretary of State, campaign contributions website, Josh Mandel has received thousands and thousands of dollars from David L. Brennan and his family members. Here is the link that shows how much David L. Brennan, kingpin of Ohio's charter schools, has contributed to Mandel: LINK.

* Republican Josh Mandel, as a member of the Ohio House, voted against a bill that would notify tenants that their rental house/apartment is under foreclosure. HB 9:

Include a provision in any written rental agreement that
informs the tenant of the landlord's obligations under section
5321.20 of the Revised Code. The provision should substantially
conform to the following:

"The landlord must notify you within sixty days after a
foreclosure action is filed that the property you reside in may be
sold at auction pursuant to that action. The landlord must also
notify you of the date, time, and place of the sale at least
twenty-one days before the date of the sale at auction. If the
property is sold at auction, the new owner will become your
landlord, the rental agreement will convert to a month-to-month
rental agreement, and the previous owner is required to remit to
the new owner any security deposits that you have paid."

Josh Mandel voted against it. I guess he believes that tenants don't need this information. Mandel is an idiot.

**************

* Is anyone else trouble by the fact that Mitt Romney lets other people do his dirty work?

...Earlier speculation had been on Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) and former
Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty. Chris Christie’s name has come up as a
dark-horse possibility. Romney’s eldest son, Tagg, apparently had the
duty of notifying Portman and Pawlenty that they were not the choices....

Mitt Romney made a public announcement calling on Todd Akin to quit the race, but he did not make a personal telephone call. Romney let his running mate, Paul Ryan, make the phone call.

...Mr. Akin told ABC's "Good Morning America" that Romney's running mate,
Rep. Paul Ryan, called him to personally plea that he step aside, but
Mr. Akin said "it's not right for party bosses to override" Missouri
voters, who knew they weren't getting a "perfect" candidate....

Why doesn't Romney have the decency and the courtesy to call people and make his opinions known? During the war in Viet Nam, Romney protested in favor of the war, but went to France on missionary work instead of going to war. Apparently, Mitt Romney is a weasel.

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

*President Obama was in Columbus, Ohio, today! We've got to make sure that we get everyone to vote and support the President! He stand up for all of us, and cares for the rights of women.

*For the election, make sure you vote for Obama, Sherrod Brown, and Democrats. The Republicans have gone over the cliff with their anti-middle class, anti-Medicare, anti-veterans, anti-women, and anti-college students.

Ohioans also should be reminded to vote YES on Issue 2, in order to end the political gerrymandering in the state.

>>>>> When H.R. 3 (http://tinyurl.com/8ql6vve) was introduced in the House of Representatives on January 20, 2011, the bill was sponsored by the following:

Monday, August 20, 2012

* Republican Rep. Todd Akin of Missouri, is a candidate for U.S. Senate. After Todd Akin's comment about how a woman's body's reacts to a "legitimate rape," the public, and elected officials weighed in on his comments. The Republicans have voted numerous times on women's health since they've taken control of the U.S. House. Todd Akin's views of women, rape victims, and the rights of women are horrifying.

...Responding to a reporter's question on Monday, Obama demonstrated why Akin's comment is a waking nightmare for Republicans:

"The
views expressed were offensive. Rape is rape. The idea that we should
be parsing and qualifying and slicing what types of rape we're talking
about doesn't make sense to the American people. And certainly doesn't
make sense to me. So what I think these comments do underscore is why we
shouldn't have a bunch of politicians, a majority of whom are men,
making health care decisions on behalf of women."

"Although
these particular comments have led Gov. Romney and other Republicans to
distance themselves, I think the underlying notion that we should be
making decisions on behalf of women for their health care decisions or
qualifying forcible rape versus non-forcible rape, I think those are
broader issues. And that is a significant difference in approach between
me and the other party ..."

Thank you, President Obama!!!!!!

It is no wonder that women support President Obama and the Democrats by wide margins. Republicans like Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan, Eric Cantor, Steve Stivers, and the rest of the GOP, are more interested in what is happening in a woman's vagina and uterus than creating jobs! Women are not the property of men. Women have every right to determine their own health choices----not Todd Akin, not Mitt Romney, not Paul Ryan, not Eric Cantor, not Steve Stivers, and not any member of the Republican Party.

- - - - - -

Republicans are working hard to restrict, stop, and prevent people from voting. Doug Preisse of the Ohio GOP has made it obvious where he stands.

Preisse was one of the board of elections members who blocked Democratic efforts in Franklin County to expand voting hours to evenings and weekends. According to the Dispatch, he called claims of unfairness “bullshit. Quote me!”

I guess now we know exactly how Doug Preisse feels and that he and the Republicans will go to any means to win, even if they violate the Voting Rights Act and the laws of our nation. Let me also remind you that Doug Preisse is a close adviser of Ohio Gov. John Kasich.

The only way to shut up the hatred of Doug Priesse, Kasich, and others who want to stop your vote is to beat them at the polls. Vote. Vote by absentee ballot. Vote and let these people know that you will not be stopped in exercising your right to vote against them and their Republican Party.

Sunday, August 19, 2012

* The Gainesville Sun showed the lack of enthusiasm for the Romney-Ryan ticket in Florida with this little item: "......hundreds of supporters in The Villages came out in droves Saturday to catch a glimpse of Paul Ryan...."

One of the largest retirement communities in Florida with a population of over 60,000, could only muster "hundreds" of attendees for Paul Ryan. The Villages was built by one of Romney's buddies. The people that buy homes in this retirement community obviously can afford homes valued from $60,000 to over $1.2 million. These retirees are not the ones that would have financial difficulty with a voucher program for Medicare. The elderly widows that are living on $700/month from Social Security are the ones that would suffer the most.

***** Jon Husted, the Ohio Secretary of State, has shut down early voting on weekends in Ohio. Husted wants to be governor of Ohio, but these games he is playing with people's voting rights is shameful. Now Husted wants to fire 2 members of the Montgomery Board of Elections for disagreeing with him.

Jon Husted wants to fire Tom Richie and Dennis Lieberman, both Democrats on the Montgomery County Board of Elections. Isn't it odd that Richie and Lieberman questioned Jon Husted's legal residency in 2009? Husted owned a home in Montgomery County, but utility records did not show evidence of him actually living in the home, which was in the district he represented as a state senator. At the time, more people had seen him with his wife and children in a Columbus suburban home.

Is Jon Husted interested in fair elections in Ohio or just paying back the trouble they gave him in 2009 (see ProgressOhio for details)?

Friday, August 17, 2012

* Republicans may see Paul Ryan as some budget guru. Voters should be warned that if Paul Ryan's budget plan is adopted in a Republican administration, it could result in 5 million lost jobs, and more economic decline.

Back in March when Paul Ryan was merely auditioning for the vice presidency, Ethan Pollack at the Economic Policy Institute tried to measure how big a crater the congressman's budget proposal would dig in the labor market.

His analysis showed that implementing Ryan's monstrosity would not
only flatten very modest job creation—a monthly average in the past six
months of 130,000 new jobs—it would obliterate millions of existing jobs. If nothing else changed, and Ryan's plan was on the books, by 2014, the official
unemployment rate that is now at a stubbornly high 8.3 percent would
rise to 13 percent, nearly three points above the depths of the Great
Recession. And we already know how much that official rate undercounts
the ranks of the jobless.....

....Add in Ryan's proposed cuts in Medicaid and we're talking another 862,000 lost jobs. That's a total of almost 5 million jobs lost. In two years.....

How awful! Face it. The Republicans cannot govern. Look at the disaster created by George W. Bush. People lost their financial security, and many people lost their lives in Bush's Iraq war that was based on a lie. On the day that President Obama was inaugurated, Sen. Mitch McConnell and other GOP leaders got together to plan to block all Obama's legislation, and make it as difficult for the country to succeed. Even John Boehner, Eric Cantor, and the rest of the Tea Party Republicans have failed to meet the needs of the American people because their agenda was designed to create havoc.

It is time vote out the far right obstructionists in the Senate and the House. We need to get some work done and get people back to work. Giving more tax cuts to the rich won't do it. The only way to accomplish new job creation and get the country moving again would be to throw out the far right, self-centered, Republicans.

* The fact that Romney and Ryan want to "reform" Medicare by giving the elderly vouchers just makes me positively sick. My Mom passed away last year. There is no way that she could have survived on the voucher program being proposed by Romney and Ryan. Romney and Ryan obviously have little if any experience in dealing with illness, medicines, doctors, hospitalizations, and emergency room visits. They also lack compassion.

Thursday, August 16, 2012

...."Actually, Paul Ryan and my plan for Medicare, I think, is the same,
if not identical -- it's probably close to identical," he told Green Bay
station WBAY. Ryan, as a House member, in 2011 proposed shifting
Medicare entirely to a voucher-like system, then tweaked the proposal in
2012 to offer traditional Medicare alongside private plans.

"Our plan is, for people 55 years of age and older, there's no
change. The only change I'd mention for 55 or older is we'd restore the
$817 billion President Obama took out of the Medicare trust fund," said
Romney.

Romney initially misstated the Congressional Budget Office's estimate
of the cost increase -- $716 billion -- that a repeal of the Obama
health care law would entail for Medicare over 10 years. That reduction doesn't come from patient care, but changes in hospital payments and Medicare Advantage payments to private insurers.....

That is amazing. Romney has flip flopped again because originally he said they were different. Imagine you are 50 years old, and you've paid into Medicare all your working life. Romney and Ryan want to take it away and give you, and veterans voucher, or coupons. The problem is that the value of the voucher will remain the same, but medical costs will continue to go up. You, the retiree, will need to make up the difference out of your own pocket. (This is the reward that Romney and Ryan are giving their friends in the insurance industry.)

•••••• Republican members of the House of Representatives are getting nervous. Retired people and those in their 40's and 50's are starting to ask serious questions about what happens if Romney and Ryan are elected and people lose their Medicare. Even Republicans think that this destruction of Medicare is radical.

>>>> Republican Josh Mandel, Ohio's absent Treasurer, has gotten noticed, and it is not for something good. See HuffPost.

** Mitt Romney won't release his tax records but he did say this, according to the Washington Post:

“I did go back and look at my taxes, and over the last 10 years, I’ve never paid less than 13 percent,” Romney said today.

To which the obvious answer is: Well, then, why won’t you prove it?...

Is that in income tax? Romney never uses the words "income tax" when he talks about the taxes he paid.

• Mitt Romney is the whiniest presidential candidate that I can remember in my lifetime, and I'm 61 years old! Romney is trying to paint President Obama as a dangerous, angry Black man. Why? President Obama has not demonstrated any anger in all the time that he has been President. Romney would rather make up stuff than discuss the facts
that he ---------(1) won't let us see his tax returns, especially his secret money in overseas accounts,

(2) the Romney-Ryan plan to dismantle Medicare and hand out vouchers to seniors. Seniors have paid into the program. Why are Romney and Ryan taking this money to fund the tax cuts for millionaires???

(4) Paul Ryan wants to limit your access to some forms of birth control pills,

(5) Paul Ryan is against abortion, even if the woman was raped or was a victim of incest. If a woman wants an abortion, Paul Ryan believes a woman should be forced to have a ten inch transvaginal ultrasound wand pushed into her uterus.

(6) Romney has even proposed giving vouchers to veterans, and privatizing their care.

Do you see anything remotely good in the Romney-Ryan plans?

_________

• Ohio Secretary of State, Jon Husted, a Republican, who originally wanted to let Republican-voting counties have extended weekend voting hours, has a new idea on how to limit voting.

Ohio SecretaryofState Jon Husted is setting uniform hours for early voting statewide for the first time.

The
Republican elections chief said today he'll direct election boards to
remain open until 7 p.m. on weekdays for most of the two weeks leading
up to the election. But he ruled against Saturday hours.

The
decision extends hours for some election boards but means others that
intended to be open on Saturdays in October won't be able to do so. The
move comes as Democrats and civil rights groups pressured Husted to
broaden access to the polls.....

Husted originally wanted to let only "active duty military" vote early on weekends, but I'd guess that most of those "active duty military" members are in Afghanistan or on a base out of state. Why do Republicans want to limit, thwart, and block your right to vote???

* What is all this baloney that says that Gov. John Kasich's approval is going up? These must be uninformed voters who are unaware of the damage being done through fracking, money being given to failing charter schools, and lack of support for the poor and disabled. When all our water is gone or polluted, then we can blame Kasich.

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Facing
what is emerging as a defining issue, Mitt Romney running mate Paul
Ryan on Wednesday invited debate over his controversial proposal to
overhaul Medicare and predicted the GOP would win the argument.

"We want this debate. We need this debate. And we will win this debate,"
Ryan told hundreds of supporters gathered on the campus of his alma
mater, Ohio's Miami University....

Really? Paul Ryan thinks that he and Romney will win this debate to throw out Medicare? Really? First, they have to get elected or the Republicans have to be able to have majorities in both the House and the Senate. Are Americans willing to gamble on losing Medicare? Are you willing to create a disaster for your parents and yourselves by voting for candidates that will destroy Medicare? Can you imagine the worries, emotional upset, anxiety, and mental anguish you and your family could face without Medicare? Do your parents have enough money to cover a critical medical issue? Why would you vote for someone that would hurt your family?Why would you vote for Romney and Ryan knowing what they intend to do?

>> The Seattle Times explains what the Paul Ryan budget would do to Medicare:

...Ryan would shift Medicare from a system in which everyone gets the same
set of benefits, paid for by tax funds, to one in which the government
would give each senior citizen a fixed amount of money....

When the cost of insurance goes up, seniors would have to come up with their own money, to fill in the gap.

> Wendell Potter author of "Deadly Spin" and former Cigna executive, was on the Last Word, with Lawrence O'Donnell on MSNBC-TV. Mr. Potter said that Romney and Ryan aren't telling people what they lose under their plan. People will have to pay more out of their own pocket, but it will be paid to private insurance companies.

Rep. Chris Van Hollen, also a guest on the program, said that under the Romney Ryan plan, seniors will lose benefits -immediately.

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

* Did you know Republican Paul Ryan was a cosponsor of a national bill to force an ultrasound for women who want an abortion? HR 3805 was sponsored by Jim Jordan (OH-4th).

* The Romney-Ryan talking points about Medicare are lies. If you vote for Romney and Ryan, seniors will pay more per year as the Republicans move to destroy Medicare. President Obama has actually helped seniors on Medicare

Republican candidates are not allowed to say "entitlement reform,""privatization," or "every option is on the table" because it is true. The Republicans want to get rid of Medicare and will lie to win the election and do it.

President Obama will continue to protect Medicare and has worked on
(the following is from How ACA Helps Seniors)
- closing the "donut hole" on senior medications,
- reducing co-pays and deductibles,
- making sure that those on Medicare cannot lose their coverage or have it reduced,
- improving the quality of medical services....

The Republicans are lying. The Republican lied about their plan to create jobs. They didn't create jobs. Instead of working with President Obama on getting our infrastructure fixed and make millions of jobs in building roads and bridges, rebuilding schools, fixing public buildings, etc., the Republicans sat on their fat a@@es and did nothing. Since taking over the House of Representatives, the Republicans have had over 30 votes to repeal the Affordable Care Act, voted numerous times to de-fund Planned Parenthood, voted against abortion (again, again, again, and again). The Republicans wasted time and your tax dollars.

**Tonight Ed Schultz did a great job breaking down life under the Paul Ryan budget plan. Here are a few items from what Ed presented tonight on MSNBC-TV:

Paul Ryan & GOP's Assault on Medicare(reviewed by Congressional Budget Office and others)
1. Turn Medicare into a Voucher Program
2. Raise eligibility age to 67
3. Seniors would pay an additional $6400 more per year

For the Middle Class Under the Paul Ryan Budget Plan(per JEC Chair's staff)
1. Those making between $50,000-100,000, would have a tax increase up to $4,479.
2. For millionaires - They would get a$331,544 tax cut.

If you are a widow and you receive $800/month from Social Security, Paul Ryan and the Republicans want you to pay an additional $6400 per year.

....The ad claims Brown sent billions of dollars to foreign countries. The
information that the ad uses to back up that claim, that Brown voted for
the stimulus bill, has been proven false. Brown did not make decisions
on how that money would be spent, and he was one of the senators who
called for its suspension after the foreign grants were reported.

When confronted with those facts, the Mandel campaign offered as
support for its claim that Brown votes for appropriations for U.S.
foreign operations. That's the money for embassies, war-related spending
to help establish new governments and the U.S. portions of
international missions. That's a ridiculous stretch from what the ad
implies, which is that Brown tried to hide that he irresponsibly sent
billions or our tax dollars to foreign countries.

We have a rating for statements that are both false and ridiculous. It's Pants on Fire.

OMG! Josh Mandel would lie and go to any lengths to get elected. Shame.

------------

• There seems to be some confusion as to how much of the Paul Ryan budget plan would be adopted by a possible Mitt Romney administration. Romney has spoken many times on his admiration for the budget and Paul Ryan's plans.

Here is more on the Paul Ryan speech he gave about Ayn Rand as quoted by the Atlanticwire:

"But the reason I got involved in public service, by and large, if I had to credit one thinker, one person, it would be Ayn Rand."

"And when you look at the twentieth-century experiment with collectivism—that Ayn Rand,
more than anybody else, did such a good job of articulating the
pitfalls of statism and collectivism—you can’t find another thinker or
writer who did a better job of describing and laying out the moral case
for capitalism than Ayn Rand."

"It’s so important that we go back to our roots to look at Ayn Rand’s vision, her writings, to see what our girding, under-grounding [sic] principles are."

Seniors in Florida are already worrying about Medicare, Ryan's voucher program, and the inevitable rise of medical coverage that will need to be paid for by seniors.

...Ryan, a Wisconsin congressman, is the architect of the Ryan budget
plan that makes big changes to Medicare and Medicaid and could allow for
some privatization of Social Security. And that’s widely seen as a
politically risky stance in Florida, a must-win state for Republicans.

Ryan might have another Florida problem: He once opposed the U.S.
embargo on Cuba, a now-reversed stance that concerns some in
Miami-Dade’s exile community, which is overwhelmingly Republican and had
hoped that one of its own, Sen. Marco Rubio, would have been picked as
Romney’s running mate. The county’s elderly Cuban population also relies
heavily on government assistance, particularly Medicare.

Polls
indicate that voters over 50 years old — who make up more than half the
Florida electorate — are wary of changes to Medicare, Medicaid and
Social Security, which together pump about $96 billion yearly into the
hands of the elderly, the infirm and the hospitals, doctors and other
providers who give them care.....

Although Mitt Romney was supposed to visit Orlando today, the campaign announced late Sunday that the presumed Republican presidential nominee was too exhausted to make the trip.....

How old is Romney? If campaigning is hard, how would he react to long days in the White House.

•••• Bob Cesca reminded us of a time when Paul Ryan mocked an elderly man that spoke out at one of his town meetings: (YouTube)

That wasn't very nice of Paul Ryan. That man is someone's spouse, grandparent, loved one, and friend. Paul Ryan's treatment and mockery of this man reveals something about how Paul Ryan sees people, especially those that are older and poorer than he is.

Saturday, August 11, 2012

Paul Ryan is a dangerous man. He worships someone that referred to people as producers and parasites. Paul Ryan, Mitt Romney's pick for his vice presidential running mate, is an avid follower of atheist, Ayn Rand.

The Atlanticwire ran some quotes from an audio of Paul Ryan that was posted by the Atlas Society. Here are the quotes as posted by the Atlanticwire:

"I just want to speak to you a little bit about Ayn Rand and what she meant to me in my life and [in] the fight we’re engaged here in Congress. I grew up on Ayn Rand, that’s what I tell people."

"I grew up reading Ayn Rand and it taught me quite a bit about who I am and what my value systems are, and what my beliefs are."

"It’s inspired me so much that it’s required reading in my office for all my interns and my staff. We start with Atlas Shrugged. People tell me I need to start with The Fountainhead then go to Atlas Shrugged [laughter]. There’s a big debate about that. We go to Fountainhead, but then we move on, and we require Mises and Hayek as well."

Ayn Rand is required reading for his staff? That sounds like indoctrination.

If you think that is shocking, here is even more about Republican Rep. Paul Ryan from the Sacramento Bee:

....Ryan, a Wisconsin congressman, is the architect of the Ryan budget plan that makes big changes to Medicare and Medicaid and could allow for some privatization of Social Security.
And that's widely seen by Democrats and most analysts as a politically
risky stance in Florida, a must-win state for Republicans.

...Ryan might have another problem in Florida: he opposes the Cuban
embargo, a stance that's anathema to Miami-Dade's exile community,
which is overwhelmingly Republican and had hoped that one of their own,
Sen. Marco Rubio, would have been picked as Romney's running mate.
Though conservative, the county's elderly Cuban population relies
heavily on government assistance, particularly Medicare.

Polls indicate that voters over 50 years old - who comprise more than
half the Florida electorate - are wary of changes to the major
government-entitlement programs,
which pump about $96 billion yearly into the hands of the elderly, the
infirm and the hospitals, doctors and other providers who give them
care.....

Those of us approaching retirement don't want anyone touching Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. People who are younger, in their 30's, 40's, and 50's, don't want these program ended, as Ryan wants to do, because it would leave their parent in their hands....

It might be time for Sarah Silverman to make another appeal to those seniors in Florida, like she did in 2008.

• Now we know that the Republican Party, Mitt Romney, and Paul Ryan are suited up and ready to take our country back to the lousy, trickle down economics, with tax cuts for the rich, and the poor, elderly, middle class, and college students, thrown under the bus. Romney and Ryan would give tax cuts to millionaires, big oil, and hurt women. With women living longer than men, women are often left trying to survive on Medicare and Social Security. Under a Romney-Ryan plan, our survival becomes even more precarious.

Now, more than ever, it is time to support, volunteer, and/or write a check to the Obama-Biden campaign. Support every Democratic candidate too. We cannot vote a Romney-Ryan oligarchy into get power.

Friday, August 10, 2012

> Ohio Treasurer and Republican candidate, Josh Mandel, has been on the campaign trail. Unfortunately, for Ohio voters, while our tax money pays his salary, Mandel is wondering around the state trying to resuscitate his failing campaign. On Wednesday, Mandel was at Rocky River, Ohio, which is very close to his Cleveland area home. Yesterday, August 9th, Josh Mandel was in New Riegel, Ohio, where he took off work to speak to an extremely small group (3 people?). Does this guy ever go to his office in Columbus?

Josh Mandel might think it is important in his campaign to talk to 1, 2, or 3 people, but he was elected (not by me!) to manage the tax money of the 11.5 million people of Ohio. He should show up to work in Columbus and at least try to look like he is working.

Just a reminder to voters:

To protect Medicare and Social Security -

Vote for Obama and Sherrod Brown

and Democrats

_ _ _ _ _ _ _

* Wah! Wah! Wah! That crying you hear is Mitt Romney. Although Mitt Romney brags about his business experience, now he doesn't want to talk about it.

Mitt Romney, battered by Democratic attacks over his Bain Capital
record and taxes, is calling on President Obama to agree to a truce over
his business career.

“Our campaign would be — helped immensely if we had an agreement
between both campaigns that we were only going to talk about issues and
that attacks based upon — business or family or taxes or things of that
nature,” Romney said, according to excerpts of an upcoming interview
with NBC’s Chuck Todd released Friday....

.....While Romney has bristled at attacks on his time at Bain, especially a recent Democratic super PAC ad implying
he bears responsibility for a woman’s death, he’s also made his
business record a critical component of his campaign, arguably the
critical component. From his campaign’s earliest days, Romney argued
repeatedly that voters should elect him because of his private-sector
experience, crediting his investments in Bain with creating 100,00 jobs
(a claim that fact-checkers have heavily disputed)......

Extended hours on nights and weekends that made it easier for nearly
9,000 voters to cast early ballots in the 2008 presidential race at the
Hamilton County Board of Elections may not be repeated this year because
of Republican opposition. Across Ohio, that is part of a
developing pattern in which extra pre-election voting hours may be
denied to voters in large urban counties — most of which traditionally
vote Democratic — even as extended hours will be available in some
smaller counties with a strong Republican slant... A showdown over the
extra voting hours is expected at the Hamilton County Board of Elections
next week. If
the debate plays out as it has in Ohio's other major urban counties, it
likely will result in a 2-2 tie vote by board members, with Democrats
in favor of extending voting hours and Republicans opposed. That
would place the question before Secretary of State Jon Husted, a
Republican who over the past several weeks has consistently sided with
GOP elections board members elsewhere in casting tie-breaking votes
against extending voting hours during the weeks leading up to the Nov. 6
election...

< Only in cases where boards' tie votes give him a
decisive voice, McClellan added, will Husted move to block extra voting
hours. The
counties where Husted has joined with other Republicans to deny
expanded early voting strongly backed then-candidate Barack Obama in
2008, while most of those where the extra hours will stand heavily
supported GOP nominee John McCain.

If you live in an Ohio county that went for McCain in 2008, you may have longer voting hours. Those counties that supported Obama, can have their early voting hours shortened by Republicans and Jon Husted will allow it.

Write to the U.S. Department of Justice, Voting Section (Voting.Section@usdoj.gov), and let them know you want an investigation into why certain Ohio counties are allowed longer voting hours.

* Are you looking for a sign that Republican Josh Mandel's campaign is failing and losing support from voters and the right wing? The Washington Times has Mandel's face and name on the front page of their paper. Unfortunately, for Mandel, he is referred to as "John" Mandel under his picture.(h/t JonsMandel) It looks like the Washington Times doesn't even care if they are right about the "golden boy" in the Tea Party Republicans because they are losing interest in him.

Josh Mandel is against pay equity for women, against reproductive freedom for women, against supporting public education, against requiring corporations to clean up their messes, and for more tax cuts for the rich. It is no wonder Ohio voters are running away from Mandel.

More evidence is surfacing about the Mandel campaign's dwindling support with a recent statement from the FreedomWorks Ohio, David Zupan. With Mandel being propped up by outside sources, like FreedomWorks, it is no wonder that ugly behavior is showing.Plunderbund has posted the video of Zupan raising his middle finger and saying,.....
Go see it for yourself at Plunderbund.

••••••••••••••••••••

* Mitt Romney apparently is unwilling and unable to address the issues that are important to women. Romney has said that his wife, Ann, will be able to speak to women about certain topics. Obviously, Romney believes that speaking to women requires knowledge of some foreign language. The reality of it is that Romney sees women as second class citizens, uninterested in politics, attached to the kitchen, and children. Mitt Romney is stuck in the 1950's.

Romney and the entire Republican Party are not interested in discussing women's reproductive health. As Romney has promised to get rid of Planned Parenthood, end federal college loans, and cut aid to public education, he continues to lose any support he might have had from women.

* As an elder, and higher ranking member of the Mormon Church, is it possible that Sen. Harry Reid knows more about Mitt Romney's finances? Some pundits on the right have attacked Sen. Reid's recent statements about Romney's taxes, but they do not have the access to information that Reid would have. When Romney says that he has paid plenty of taxes, do you notice that he doesn't say that he paid plenty of federal income taxes?

Chances are that Romney won't release his federal income tax information before the election. Add that to the fact that the financial data posted on Romney's campaign site is only what they want us to know and those statements are not his federal income tax returns. What is he hiding?